Before Li Chongjin left Shouzhou, a general came to the front to find Guo Shao and said: General Li, the commander of Huainan, invites General Guo to meet at the right wing camp of the Hujie Army.
All the generals around him looked at him sideways and kept silent. They all knew that the superiors were determined to attack the city, and Guo Shao's sudden stop would cause dissatisfaction from the superiors. Guo Shao looked around, and generals such as Li Chuyun just lowered their heads and kept silent. No one had any solution.
Guo Shao then said: Tell all the troops to rest for a while, I will go to see General Li before coming back.
Li Chuyun said: I will go with my lord.
A group of several people let the general who was the messenger lead the way and rode to the main camp of the right wing of the Hujie Army. On the other side of the Huai River, there was a large area of military tents, at least several miles of which were all the garrisons of the right wing of the Hujie Army. The people there had never come to Shouzhou City. They were all Hujie Army soldiers, and Guo Shao didn't think there was any danger in this trip. The main reason was that he was not familiar with Li Chongjin before, and there was no grudge between them.
When they reached the central army camp, they entered a large tent with wide banners hanging on it. They saw two rows of generals standing inside. Li Chongjin was sitting at the top, and the first person sitting on the left was Li Jixun. The man Guo Shao had seen was a man in his forties.
As expected, Li Chongjin was not in a good mood and asked coldly: General Guo, why did you stop attacking the city
Guo Shao replied: I have just taken over the siege troops and am not familiar with the terrain, army and strategy. I would like to rest for a few days and discuss countermeasures with the generals first.
This was Guo Shaolu's idea. Li Chongjin could not refute it, but he was very unhappy. He said in public: "You are too kind to command an army. I think you are too soft-hearted. You are too soft-hearted to let the government attack Shouzhou, a strong city. I will report the truth to the emperor."
Guo Shao was scolded as if he was useless. He was angry and thought: Do you think I want to attack Shouzhou? If you can do it, go ahead. Do you think I want to take on this tough guy
But Li Chongjin was the commander of the cavalry and infantry, and no one in the imperial guards was more senior than him; moreover, he was the commander of Huainan, and when the emperor went to Chuzhou, he had the power to control the troops in the entire Huai River Basin. It would be extremely unwise for Guo Shao to take the blame and quarrel with him, so Guo Shao endured it.
Some people are really angry and can't bear it. Guo Shao had to say: I have the will but not the strength.
At this time, Li Jixun said calmly: The garrison commander of Shouzhou City is Liu Renzhan. It is rumored that he is capable of handling important matters and is highly valued by the ruler of Southern Tang. Shouzhou is a strategic location that controls the Huai River and must be saved by Southern Tang. As long as we exert pressure, we can lure in reinforcements. Although there will be casualties in the siege, we can get twice as much back from the reinforcements.
Guo Shao thought to himself: You guys are good at asking me to rush to the front and take lives, while you guys are picking off the weak ones in the back, right
Li Chongjin agreed with this and urged: "It would be best if Shouzhou could be taken, which would really open up Huainan. If we can't take it, we should also put pressure on them. If Shouzhou is not in any danger at all, why would the Southern Tang army save it? General Guo, how much time do you need to discuss countermeasures? Is there any important strategy that requires stopping the siege and wasting time?"
After several questions, Guo Shao could not answer any of them, so he had to say: The army needs to rest for three days, please allow it, General Li.
Three days, just three days, said Li Chongjin.
Guo Shao returned to the city, ordered a truce, and summoned all the generals to the camp to discuss. Everyone was talking about it, but no one had a good solution. Guo Shao sat in the upper seat and said nothing, allowing dozens of people to argue and discuss below.
What good solution can be found
Guo Shao was depressed and disappointed, thinking of the Queen's encouragement to him in the secret letter, asking him to perform satisfactorily in Huainan. But in the current situation, he had no chance to perform. How to chew the high walls and thick soil? Zhao Kuangyin's group was fighting happily in the front, and even his brother Li Jixun was in Shouzhou, where he had a better job.
Later, he thought again, what would happen if he neglected the battle? In Guo Shao's mind, the emperor should have been very dissatisfied with him. Now the emperor was personally leading the army. If he did not perform well under his watch and was judged to be worthless, how would a person who held the power of life and death treat a person he disliked and had no value
Guo Shao felt his palms were sweaty. His feeling at this moment: there was a delicious carrot in front of him, but he could not eat it; there was also a sword hanging over his head.
I promised General Li, the commander of Huainan, that I would only rest for three days. Guo Shao spoke. Seeing that he had been silent for a long time and suddenly wanted to speak, everyone shut up and turned to look at Guo Shao.
Being watched by many people again, Guo Shao frowned and said: "Continue the siege in three days. Report the siege areas that your respective numbers are responsible for and send them to General Li Chuyun. Also report the number of military equipment and supplies to Mr. Zuo." Guo Shao pointed to the two people beside him.
The generals obeyed. Guo Shao said: The Southern Tang army used a lot of petroleum and kerosene, which can easily burn the ladders. The ant-attachment method is even less effective in Shouzhou. While we are attacking the city, let's try another method, digging a tunnel.
A general said: General, the general guarding Shouzhou is Liu Renzhan. He is a veteran of battles and has seen everything. He found that we must be prepared when digging the ground, so it is difficult to be effective.
Guo Shao thought about it and said: "Now build some earthen towers on the edge of the city, and then build some houses to cover them; then dig pits and trenches. Dig tunnels in the houses during the day, put the soil in the pits first, and then quietly transport the soil away at night and quietly walk through the trenches."
Three days later, the siege continued. Li Chongjin sent someone to find out that Guo Shao's brilliant plan was to dig a tunnel, and immediately sent someone to Chuzhou to report to the emperor.
At this time, Zhao Kuangyin made new achievements.
Originally, Chai Rong wanted to send Han Lingkun to attack Yangzhou, but Han Lingkun's army was small and delayed on the way; Zhao Kuangyin took the initiative to ask for battle, and Chai Rong agreed, ordering Zhao Kuangyin to lead the cavalry to attack quickly from Chuzhou. Although Yangzhou was a very important center of the Southern Tang Kingdom, it did not expect that the Zhou army could attack the rear of Huainan so quickly, and it was not well prepared and had few soldiers. Zhao Kuangyin soon conquered Yangzhou, the eastern capital of the Southern Tang Kingdom.
Zhao Kuangyin got a very beautiful woman, Yang. He heard that Chai Rong had arrived in Chuzhou and treated Yang with courtesy, and then sent someone to give Yang to the emperor.
The emperor praised Zhao Kuangyin for his loyalty and sent Yang back to reward him. Zhao Kuangyin said that he dared not keep such a beautiful woman, and it was inconvenient for him to take in a woman while he was leading troops outside, so he must present her to the emperor. Yang was sent back and forth, and after walking the road between Chuzhou and Yangzhou three times, she was finally reluctantly accepted by the Emperor of the Great Zhou.
At this time, Li Chongjin's men arrived in Chuzhou and reported Guo Shao's situation in the battle.
Li Chongjin's generals openly said in front of the emperor that General Guo was soft-hearted and had no good plan for rewarding and punishing. He not only did not punish deserters, but also rewarded them, which made the soldiers at a loss whether to flee or fight hard. When he took office, the weather was fine and conducive to fighting, but he asked for a three-day truce to prepare a good plan, which turned out to be digging a tunnel.
Unexpectedly, Chai Rong was not angry, but smiled and looked back and said: A few months ago, Wang Pu said that Guo Shao was good at predicting the enemy and was good at observing the battle opportunities; in the blink of an eye, he became a person who rewards and punishes without limit and is full of bad things in Li Chongkou's eyes. Who is right
When Wang Pu heard his name being called, he quickly bent down and lowered his head.
Chai Rong turned to look at him and said: Prime Minister Wang, go to Shouzhou and come back to report to me when you have figured it out.
Wang Pu hurriedly said: I obey your order and will report it truthfully.
Wang Pu rushed to Shouzhou, but instead of going to the front, he met Li Gu first. Li Gu had been a prime minister before and had a good relationship with Wang Pu. After listening to the situation in front of the emperor, he said: Li Chongjin was right in saying one thing, Guo Dushi was indeed a little soft-hearted. He had previously ordered to stop the siege and said in public: If the war is fought this way, I will be ashamed to see my fellow villagers when I go back, for fear that the families of the soldiers will ask him for his husband and son. There will be deaths in war, and saying such things is really not good for morale.
Li Gu thought for a moment and said: As for saying that he was indiscriminate in rewarding and punishing, it is biased. Pardoning deserters means that they are allowed to rush forward and die in battle; but those deserters were very dedicated, and several of them climbed up the city wall without hesitation, and nearly half of them were injured or killed without fear of death. Only then did Guo Dushi think that they could make up for their mistakes and pardoned the crime of running away. Saying that he was indiscriminate in rewarding and punishing is a bit of a distortion of right and wrong.
Upon hearing this, Wang Pu breathed a sigh of relief and said: People have mouths on their bodies, so their words really cannot be trusted. This reminds me of those ordinary people. After their words are spread a few times, they completely change their meaning and become rumors.
Li Gu bowed and said: “Prime Minister Wang is able to see the big picture from the small details.”
The two talked for a while, and Wang Pu asked Li Gu to accompany him to the front line to see the situation with his own eyes. The siege was still going on, and some houses and fortifications were built on the southern part of the city wall. Everything looked normal, and it was not much different from the previous siege. At first glance, he did not see any signs of slacking off.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the soldiers of the Southern Tang Kingdom on the tower suddenly laughed and mocked. Wang Pu looked around and heard a commotion from the fortifications, so he rode over to see what was going on.
It turned out that a large amount of water was pouring out of the house, flooding the trench. The people in the water shouted: There are still people inside, there are still people inside, what should we do
Wang Pu shouted: What happened
A general said with a sad face: We were digging a tunnel and accidentally dug into underground water. The underground water suddenly flooded up and many diggers were drowned.
Wang Pu's face darkened after hearing this. He then looked at the Southern Tang army on the city wall and saw that they were actually laughing at the Zhou army's trenches which were full of water while defending the city. Wang Pu felt even more unhappy.
: There are some minor modifications to the previous chapter: Guo Shao was only appointed as the Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy, and he still served as the commander of the left wing of the Hujie Army.